Not nearly enough of us read - and especially entrepreneurs have little time to read non-business tomes. So here's a collection of ten books from autobiography, history, science, literature and writing that all entrepreneurs could benefit from.
2. AShort History of
Nearly Everything
If you can get away with reading
just one book it should be this one.
Written in Bill Bryson's trademark
lucid style and self-deprecating
humor, it will equip you to be able
to talk practically on any topic of
science, and actually make sense.
Science
Friday, 20 June 14
3. Guns, Germs
Steel&
History
History could easily get boring in
the wrong hands.
Jared Diamond explains how
geography, farming, government,
disease & innovation have evolved
to explain history - particularly how
and why Europe has evolved as it
did over the last 500 years.
Friday, 20 June 14
4. Diary of A
Young Girl
The
Autobiography
What can the diary of a 14-year old
girl who lived 70 years ago teach us?
The tale of a Jewish family hiding from
the Nazis in occupied Netherlands
can still move and educate us. Most
importantly it puts our own lives in
perspective.
Friday, 20 June 14
5. Experiments
with Truth
The story of my
Gandhi in his own words.
What better way to learn Gandhi's
"attitude of experimenting, of
testing what will and will not bear
close scrutiny, what can and
cannot be adapted to new
circumstances," as Sissela Bok
puts it.
Autobiography
Friday, 20 June 14
6. Autobiography
of Malcolm X
The Autobiography
Black. Muslim. Militant. Not.
Malcolm X despite the box
people have attempted to
put him in, grew beyond
labels and hatred to gain a
global perspective and
following. Told in Alex
Haley s inimitable style.
Friday, 20 June 14
7. Strategy
Life is about love & war
While war and sports
metaphors seem all too
common in modern business
literature, Sun Tzu s original
and its myriad translations
have useful lessons well
beyond business or war.
The art
War
of
Friday, 20 June 14
8. Literature
Of
mice&men
Tale of two men. Human.
For a literature Nobel laureate,
Steinbeck wrote some of the
most accessible fiction, often in
very few words. This story of is
not just an easy and engaging
read, but works at so many
levels, you ll devour it.
Friday, 20 June 14
9. Classics
Brothers Five. Gods. Kings. War.
There is a reason this is called an
epic! Kamala Subramaniam s
Mahabharata is a gripping retelling of
a tale we ve heard a thousand times.
Yet her writing amazes, engages and
inspires. From the merely human to
divine it has it all, in excellent prose.
Friday, 20 June 14
10. Psychology
What makes us happy?
Who knew that psychologists
could be funny as hell? Daniel
Gilbert weaves a ripping good
tale of many years of research
into what happiness is and
what makes each of us happy.
Eye-opening and fascinating.
Friday, 20 June 14
11. Writing
Keep it simple and short!
It s one thing to exhort others to
behave a certain way and another
to act yourself. Strunk and White
do keep it simple and short and in
the bargain made the better place
for prose forever. Get it now, read
it, practice it forever!
Friday, 20 June 14